Comments on: The Madness of March is Upon Us — BYU Dances Again

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:59:46 +0000

Thus ends a disappointing year for BYU football and hoops. Not because the teams didn’t do well — rather because there were high expectations that weren’t met.

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:34:05 +0000

What a mess that was.

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:15:39 +0000

Defense is terrible too.

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:06:50 +0000

With 8 minutes left the team is embarrassing itself out there. Can’t hit a stinkin’ shot.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:02:27 +0000

Well, so much for BYU winning a first round game.

(I write this with hopes that it will cause karma and the Cougs will come roaring back to prove me wrong.)

By: Riley

Riley — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:18:52 +0000

As a Ute, I can’t help but understand how many of you must feel as the “crazy free-thinkers” of your Gospel Doctrine class when BYU sports discussions arise here. I feel so labeled and judged for my radical ways. Haha! Something to think about…Eric. ; )

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:24:49 +0000

Yes Ray, I’m afraid you are a conspiracy theorist on this one.

While I do think BYU takes a hit for being from the MWC and doesn’t do itself any favors for refusing to play on Sunday, an 8 seed is probably pretty close to what they expected. And with so many spots feeding into Sunday games eventually there are limited spots to place BYU even though the odds of BYU making it far are very slim. I don’t think the committee chair folk care enough about BYU to torpedo the school.

By: Eric Russell

Eric Russell — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:03:16 +0000

Andy Katz has now mentioned in a couple of articles that the rematch is BYU’s fault. It’s true that BYU has boxed themselves into that particular 8-seed, as the other three 8-slots potentially lead to a Sunday game. But why couldn’t Texas A&M move? Why lay it all on BYU?

I think there needs to be more transparency in the selection process. We’re always hearing about all the debate and thoughtful consideration that goes into it, I don’t see why they can’t tell us what was discussed and why each decision was made.

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:28:11 +0000

Correction: BYU always gets seeded #8 or #9.

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:27:27 +0000

Call me a conspiracy theorist when it comes to small conference champions and BYU, but I am convinced that the seeding committee has a conscious pattern when it comes to these schools.

BYU plays by its own rules and limits what the committee is able to do by refusing to play on Sunday. Therefore, as a punishment, they always get seeded #8 – specifically so they have to face a #1 if they win their first game. It’s like the committee says, “Fine. You want a special exemption; we’ll give you THIS exemption.”

Many of the small conference champs could win an opening round game if they were seeded to play the 4th-7th place teams from the power conferences. Instead, they get #13-#16 seeds, meaning they have to play the best of the best and nearly always lose in the first round – thus giving the committee a justification for seeding them in that range again the next year.

My solution is to require the committee to take the conference champs (regular season champs first, tournament champs second) and seed them first in the top half of the brackets, then seed all the non-champion teams below them. That would give the small conference champs a fighting chance to win at least one game.

Ego and greed probably will make sure that never happens, but . . .